She had recovered her calmness as quickly as she had lost it.
"Holy father, you amaze me!" she exclaimed, haughtily. "The man is not here. I read in my paper only this morning that he had most mysteriously disappeared. But come, I see you do not believe me. You shall search my house."
He was a little staggered by her assurance.
"I do not wish to seem intrusive," he said; "but my informant was very positive."
Then he mentally shook himself. After all, he had no authority for his assertion, except the strange words of a girl who had just come out of a trance-like sleep—a girl who might simply have dreamed it all.
But he followed her all over the pretty, elegantly appointed house, the little page carrying the keys and unlocking door after door until he was sure that not an apartment in the house remained unvisited.
"You have a servant-woman, Mima," he said to her, as they descended the stairs.
"Yes," she replied; "Mima is in the kitchen, preparing luncheon. You shall see her, too, holy father."
Mima, at work over a dainty luncheon, bowed her head grimly to receive his blessing.